Amd64 has arrived at my house!! Woot!

This is a discussion on Amd64 has arrived at my house!! Woot! within the Tech Board forums, part of the Community Boards category; I got a new mobo with amd 64 processor in today. The heatsink comes with a thermal interfact material pre-applied, ...

Amd64 has arrived at my house!! Woot!

I got a new mobo with amd 64 processor in today. The heatsink comes with a thermal interfact material pre-applied, and the heatsink came with the processor. My question is, will I still have to apply thermal grease?

The factory-supplied fan and heat paste on my Athlon64 is VERY loud (sounds like a vacuum cleaner), but still fails to sufficiently cool the PC under high load if the room temperature rises above ~26 degrees Celsius.

So, if you know what you're doing, I'd say get a better cooling system. If not (like me), leave the stuff that works and make sure your room stays cool, for yourself as much as your PC.

Ok, here's the version for the pedantic.
The factory-supplied cooling equipment, consisting of a fan, a cooling block and a patch of thermal paste, is not ideal in that the fan is too loud and the combination fails to keep the CPU temperature below 73°C (the default temperature at which the BIOS will refuse to boot) if the room temperature, and thus the temperature of the air that is used for cooling, rises above approximately 26°C, which it often does during summer in my room.

Most "assembly line" heat sinks from the OEM are not even or "level" and therefore do not properly dissipate heat across the cpu. Lapping fixes this, and the use of an aftermarket paste such as AC5, can get u about 3-5 degree's cooler just fom the paste.